Peter Camejo-Cynthia McKinney
A Green Presidential Ticket?
by Gilles d'Aymery
Swans, July 21, 2003
Ever since the morning-after of the 2000 US presidential election, which
saw the Supreme Court select Mr. Bush against the popular vote, there
has been a concerted effort to bring the Greens back into the fold of
the so-called progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Following the
2002 mid-term elections that gave control of Congress to the Republicans
these efforts significantly intensified. The first salvo came from an
ardent Nader supporter and friend, Ronnie Dugger, the founder and former
chairperson of the Alliance for Democracy. In a December 2 article in
The Nation, "Ralph, Don't Run," Dugger implored Ralph Nader not to run
again in 2004 and made the case that the Greens should join the
Democrats in order to defeat Mr. Bush in next year's presidential
elections. Mr. Dugger based his argumentation on two major premises:
that the government under Mr. Bush and his conservative cabal rules the
land in a "crypto-fascist" fashion (therefore, must absolutely be
defeated) and that the Greens should not spoil the electoral process. He
further asserted that the "spoiler" effect had cost Al Gore the 2000
election and that the only realistic approach, if one wants to oust the
Bushites, was to follow the 1972 take-over-the-Democrats strategy.
This argumentation is deeply flawed and, for the millions of US citizens
who are looking for genuine change in the way their government operates,
assuredly self-defeating. The case to be made is quite the opposite.
It's not the Greens that should join the progressive wing of the
Democratic Party. It's the progressive wing, or at least its remnants,
that should bail out of the party and join the Greens who need to run
their own candidates. Alternative voices and proposition are direly needed.
To date, sadly, while the 2004 presidential campaign has already begun
in earnest the Greens have yet to announce whether they will slate a
presidential ticket. Ralph Nader has remained conspicuously silent.
Activists are confused and many already demoralized.
The views of this observer run against the grain of conventional wisdom,
which, if one follows Mr. Dugger's reasoning, can be summed up as "we'd
rather be a party of the majority than a party of principle."
By March 2004, following the first democratic primaries or caucuses --
Iowa (Jan 19), New Hampshire (Jan 27), Missouri (Feb 3), Michigan (Feb
7), California (March 2) -- the progressive candidates for the
democratic nomination will all be out of contention. Dennis Kucinich, Al
Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun (if she lasts that long), already
largely ignored, will leave the stage and most probably a DLC Democrat
or populist demagogue Howard Dean will win the nomination. The
progressives will be left once again to their solitary and silent journey.
full: http://www.swans.com/library/art9/ga160.html
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